2009 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Comparative research on building and management of grand coalition governments in European countries

Research Project

Project/Area Number	20730097
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Politics
Research Institution	Kobe University
Principal Investigator	YASUI Hiroki Kobe University, 大学院・法学研究科, 准教授 (60396695)
Project Period (FY)	2008 – 2009
Keywords	政党システム / 連合政治 / 福祉国家 / ガバナンス
Research Abstract	This project explored the formation and management of grand coalition governments in mainly Germany. Though it was said that the divided government was a structural cause of making a coalition between two big parties, the most frequent pattern of government in Germany is a "partial" divided government which means that neither ruling coalition parties nor opposition parties get control of the upper house. The case study of Kiesinger government revealed that political calculations was the main driving force to make a grand coalition which tended to focus on the urgent issues. In the case of Merkel government, two big parties agreed with the principle of balanced budget, but conflicted in particulars such as the safety nets for the unemployment.